Homecoming
by TA Maxwell
Summary: There's one island that Jack wants to avoid with all his life. He's done so ever since he set foot on a ship, but now, with the new crew aboard the Black Pearl, he no longer can and must face his greatest fear...his mum.


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Homecoming

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            Jack seemed nervous. No one could say exactly why, but to the entire crew, it was obvious. His eyes would dart to his new, working compass, then glance towards the horizon on the starboard, and repeat. It was easy to startle him whenever he started this, but at the time, Gibbs thought Jack needed to be made away of the problem.

            "Jack, captain?"

            Jack jerked up from his compass, eyes wide as though indeed startled.

            "Sorry ta interrupt, but Anamaria just told me we're runnin low on supplies. Accordin to the map, there's a large port island not far from-"

            "No! We can keep going! Certainly we have enough to last a few more days! Plenty of time!" he replied quickly, avoiding Gibb's eyes.

            "Captain," Anamaria appeared on deck from below, "we've only got enough food for the crew for one day, and the next port is four days from here. We need to-"

            "Oh, but must we? Such a boring place, that. All the people there, not the brightest. Lots of eunuch men."

            "But they have food. Tis better than starving, Jack. We'd just be there an hour."

            "Or must we remind you of the last time you didn't do what your crew asked." 

            "Bloody…" How could he forget Barbossa's damn mutiny over a trivial matter. "You wouldn't really, would ye?"

            "Do you want to chance that against a crew of hungry, angry pirates?" Anamaria smirked.

~~~~~

            The crew disembarked at the port dock an hour later. Jack hung at the back, hat pulled down low on his face.

            "He's not actin himself…" Gibbs confided to Cotton and his parrot. "Even for a madman, this is unlike 'im."

            "Awwrk! Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!"

            "Aye, glad ya agree."

            Unexpectedly, at that exact moment, Jack rushed by, pulling his hat even lower than before. In passing, the parrot squawked again.

            "Awwrk! Captain Jack Sparrow! Captain Jack Sparrow!"

            All movement within the square stopped. 

            "Bloody parrot's going to be soup t'night…" Jack grumbled under his breath. He turned on his heel and quickly started to head back towards the dock.

            "That bird say what I be thinkin' it said?" a fish monger spoke up. "Could've sworn I 'eard the name Jack Sparrow."

            "I 'eard it too! I declare, issat young Jack back to visit?" a woman questioned to no one in particular, glancing at Cotton.

            "NO! No, no one by that name here!" Jack answered, not paying attention to his surroundings.

            "JACK SPARROW!!"

            Jack froze in mid-step at the bellow of his name. 

            "And they said I know nothing of hell…" he muttered, turning again and sweeping his hat up from his face in the same movement. A woman stood before him, arms crossed and shooting a deadly glare at him. Gray hair was pulled into a bun at the back of her head, and her girth gave enough shade to anyone who wanted it. Jack forced a grin to his face.

            "Lo there, Mum. Fancy seein you again." 

            "Yes, fancy that. Ye better have a good excuse for letting me go on thinking ye've been dead for twenty years, you lousy excuse for a son!"

            "Truly, I'm hurt Mum. I was attempting for twenty-one."

            As reunited mother and son bickered in the middle of the market, Anamaria began to contrive a devious plan. Gibbs recognized the glint in her eye as she smiled mischievously.

            "Yer planning something," he whispered, curious.

            "Aye."

            "Mind lettin' this old sailor in on it?"

            "You'll see." Her grin set, she winked and Gibbs and sashayed forward.

            "Jack, darling, you didn't tell me I still had a mother-in-law," she said calmly, a hint of surprise in her voice as she latched onto his arm. 

            "Of course I di-excuse me?" as realization dawned, Jack could not have looked more incredulous. 

            "And who might you be?" Jack's mother raised an eyebrow as she looked between Jack and his female arm attachment.

            "Anamaria. Jack's wife."

            The surrounding crew erupted into laughter as Jack proved the opinion that he couldn't have looked more incredulous wrong. 

            "What-but-I'm-she's-" he studdered. 

            "Well, at least he's got SOME sense, getting himself a wife. I thought he didn't have a brain in his head when 'e ran off. I trust ye've been takin' good care of 'im?"

            "Aye, Mum," Anamaria smiled innocently. "He's a troublemaker, but to think, we'd never've met if he hadn't gone n stolen my boat." She accented the last three words harsher than the others.

            "Is that what this is about?" Jack hissed, coming to his senses.

            "Perhaps," Anamaria whispered back.

            "You got a bleedin new one, like I promised!" 

            "No, YOU got your old one back. The one you promised me was blown up, remember?" she answered sweetly.

            "I'm beginning to understand why Gibbs said it was bad luck to bring a woman on board a boat…"

            "So, he's still got a habit fer swipin' what ain't his, then?" the woman from before chuckled.

            "I remember Jacky was always bein' whipped for stealin. Anything 'e could get his hands on, he took."

            "Hasn't changed a bit!" Gibbs guffawed. "So 'ere yer Jacky, Captain?"

            "Watch yer bloody tongue, Gibbs, or ye'll be trainin' yer own parrot," Jack shot, glaring dangerously at the old man.

            "So, my lil Jacky's a married man and a ship captain, aye? Ye've done better than I expected of you."

            "I'm not ma-" Jack found his mouth shut by a boot digging into his shin. "Bloody-!"

            "He always got this bad a mouth?" 

            "Aye, Mum," Anamaria chuckled. "Things haven't been too well for him for the past ten years or so."

            "Really now? I've to hear about this then. You n Jack are welcome ta spend the night at my place. I doubt a married couple gets much time alone on a crowded ship, and I'll be wanting a grandchild before I die, Jack Sparrow!"

            Anamaria's face paled as much as her skin color would allow, which thankfully wasn't much. That was something she hadn't though on before taking on her "role." Apparently Jack was in similar shock. 

            "You remember where the house was, Jack?"

            "A-aye, Mum," he forced a grin onto his face. Satisfied, his mother collected a few items from a nearby stall, dropped some shillings into the shopkeeper's hand, and left. Once she was out of hearing range, the crew started laughing once again.

            "Jack, you've certainly gotten yerself into a mess with this one! Brilliant job, Ana!" Gibbs chimed, clapping the woman on the back.

            "At least now you can see –why– I didn't want to stop here," Jack grumbled.

            "Come now. Everyone's got to go back home someday. It's th'will o'nature, Jack. Ain't nothing ye can fight."

            "I was trying my damnedest."

            "Well well. Has the Sparrow indeed returned to the nest?" a female voice asked. Wondering who else they had left to meet, Jack, Gibbs, Anamaria, and the few other crew members who had come looked towards the direction the voice had come from. A young brunette woman about Jack's age stood nearby, a hand on her waist. 

            "Madeline?" Jack's incredulous look danced across his face for the third time in a few minutes. It vanished with a sharp smack.

            "What the bloody hell is it with women and slapping me when I don't think I deserve it?!"

            "Oh, so there've been others?!" SMACK.

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What will Ana and Jack do about his mother?

What's Madeline's problem with Jack?

How will Jack's mother react to him being a pirate?

Find out (maybe) In the next chapter! 


End file.
